Comments about ‘Letter: Jobs plan may suffer with approach of new year’

Once again a brilliant decision..someone who is making over 250K a year and
sells an investment home for more than 500K is going to get out of the business
because he has a 3.8% reduction in his profit. Just brilliant.

Well David your friend is not very smart. The tax only applies to the top three
percent earners and it only applies after a gain of 500k of profit. So unless he
catered to the very wealthy he closed his business on bad information.

Is it wrong for me to say that I couldn't care less that someone selling
investment property has to pay single-digit federal taxes on the profit? Oh,
dear, my successful business is now generating marginally less profit, so I
guess I'd better pack it all up and start over. Color me unsympathetic.

Your son's friend is not the one who would have to pay the taxes, the
person selling the house - if they make a profit of $500,000 or more - has to
pay $17,500 in taxes. (The seller still has $482,500 for their own use.)

Your son's friend thinks people are not going to buy or sell
investment properties because of this?

That is known as being penny
wise and pound foolish - and as a general rule, people who are penny wise and
pound foolish, don't have the pounds to invest in a situation like that
anyway. Investment income is earned by people who are penny and pound wise. To
the people who are truly going to be impacted by this law (not the people who
panic because they don't understand what is really going on - but those who
have investment properties that they can sell for a $500,000+ profit), $17,500
is pocket change.

Sounds to me like your son's friend was either going under anyway,
regardless of the tax rate, or incredibly stupid.

Either way, many
other capable and courageous businessmen will take his spot. If you folks with
sour grapes only see darkness in the future, that's fine. There are plenty
of optimistic and talented Americans who are eager to start businesses here.